OrthoPediatrics expanding Specialty Bracing division with new clinics
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In late 2023, Warsaw-based OrthoPediatrics Corp. announced the creation of its Specialty Bracing division, focused on developing new pediatric brace products. Just over a year later, the company has announced an expansion of the division by establishing specialty clinics in several target markets, including Indianapolis.
Mallory Trusty, vice president of OP experience at OrthoPediatrics, said the company, which previously specialized in surgical intervention for children with musculoskeletal disorders and disease, is looking to grow its impact in treating such conditions with non-operative care.
Last January, the company acquired Boston Orthotics & Prosthetics in Massachusetts, which Trusty said came with a suite of specialty bracing clinics primarily in the Northeast.
“Our goal is to expand that presence nationwide and internationally as well, such that every free-standing children’s hospital in the United States has access to a pediatric-specific O&P clinic,” she said. “So we have a multiyear strategy that’s going to allow us to continue advancing that and ultimately roll out or start a number of new clinics every year for the foreseeable future.”
The company’s Indianapolis clinic is located near Riley Children’s Health’s satellite facility and close to Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. It is the company’s first clinic in the state that’s exclusively focused on pediatric and adolescent patients.
“Indianapolis is a little bit of a no brainer,” said Trusty. “We are an Indiana-based company, and Riley Children’s Hospital is a premier institution helping kids in the Hoosier State, and so being able to partner with Riley and announce this new clinic and provide that care to kids in our own backyard is something that we’re very proud of.”
The company also recently acquired an orthotists and prosthetists (O&P) clinic group in the Denver area in Colorado, as well as a clinic in Davie, Florida, north of Miami.
Additionally, OrthoPediatrics is building on its existing presence in Columbus, Ohio with a new clinic inside the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Livingston Ambulatory Orthopedic Center.
“We are excited to continue building on our strategy and increasing our presence through new clinics in Indiana, Ohio, Colorado and Florida,” Joe Hauser, president of the Specialty Bracing division, said in a news release. “Our team has a robust pipeline of opportunities, by way of opening greenfield clinics or strategic acquisitions. We will continue advancing this strategy in the coming years to ensure kids have access to quality care from coast to coast.”
Trusty said the location selections for the new clinics have been driven by market opportunity and need.
“We really feel that there is a lack of pediatric-focused health care in our sub-specialty and many others, and so really giving our physician customers, and ultimately the patients and the parents that they serve, access to high quality care with clinicians that are focused exclusively on helping kids,” she said. “So where we have partnerships with existing Children’s Hospital really seems like an intuitive place to start.”
The clinics are designed to help patients with issues that do not necessarily require surgery yet with products, such as the Boston Brace, which is used to treat scoliosis. Trusty said having a clinic located close to the hospital provides many benefits for kids who need to be fitted for such a brace.
“What this is all about is helping more kids and making sure that these vulnerable patients and their parents, have access to high-quality and skilled clinicians in their home markets where you don’t have to travel hours and hundreds of miles away to see a specialty provider,” she said.
Trusty added that OrthoPediatrics’ longstanding relationship with surgeons has helped the early success of the Specialty Bracing division and led to positive feedback.
“The surgeon feedback has really been phenomenal in saying, ‘Hey, we’re so glad you guys are doing this, supporting this entire continuum of care, and now we have just another service that we can provide to them.'”
Ultimately, Trusty said the company’s goal is to have a clinic affiliated with the roughly 300 children’s hospitals in the U.S.